Related

• Computer Science Unplugged

Year Levels

• Y3-4 (Guided)

• Y5-6+

Duration

• 1 lesson

Resources

• Activity Guide

Differentiation

Make the activity more kinaesthetic by recreating the sorting network on the floor of the classroom or outdoors, then assign each date to a different learner and have them move through the sorting network.

Extension

Organise timelines by sorting dates with the activity prompts based on these themes:

• Extension Theme: Anzac Day

• Extension Theme: Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

Challenge learners to consider how we can adjust the sorting network to accommodate data sets of more or less than six items. How would this change things? How many more rounds would we need?

About Activity

How simple is it to look at a set of numbers and arrange them in order? How about for a computer?

Computers are limited to following instructions exactly as they’re programmed. So unlike us, they can’t get creative beyond what’s written in their code. So how can we write an algorithm that a computer can follow to sort our data?

This activity introduces the concepts of computational thinking, algorithms in general and sorting algorithms more specifically to organise a set of dates into chronological order.

Use the guide below as a template project that can be applied to any relevant topic and series of dates. Checkout the extension links for some fun extension theme activity guides to help get started!

Activity Guide

This activity outline contains:

• Page 1 = Overview & Instructions

• Page 2 = Sorting Network Diagram